The earth longs to be free, the sky searches for home: making love, they grew me.

Kaddish, Kiddush, Kodesh – what’s up with that?

Hebrew is cool. It’s a Semitic language, and it works very differently from English.

Most words in Hebrew grow from a three-letter ROOT. The root expresses a general idea, a family of possible words with three basic consonants. We add vowels, endings, and prefixes to make the variations on the theme.

For instance, K-D-Sh (Kuf, Dalet, Shin) is a root whose general idea is “holy.” With appropriate vowels, etc we get:

Kaddish – (kah-DEESH or KAH-dish)* The prayer mourners say, which also divides the service into sections.

Kiddush – (Kee-DOOSH or KID-ish) The blessing-toast for Shabbat and holidays, or a meal that begins with that blessing.

Kodesh – (KOH-desh) – (adj.) Holy

Kiddushin – (kee-doosh-EEN) – Jewish marriage, in which each partner is sacred to and set apart for the other.